Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
ChooseMyPlate.gov
Choose my Plate offers personalized eating plans, interactive tools to help you plan and assess your food choices, and advice to help you make better choices.'
Stay Healthy at College With MyPlate On Campus
The MyPlate On Campus Initiative aims to spread healthy eating messages to college students to empower them to improve their eating and exercise habits and encourage their peers to do the same. MyPlate On Campus offers tools, such as a tracker that develops personalized nutrition and activity plans for users, and tip sheets on topics such as choosing healthy snacks and creative ways to exercise. Students interested in promoting wellness at their schools can become MyPlate On Campus Ambassadors and gain leadership experience while hosting fitness and healthy eating activities for their fellow students.
Resource: 2015 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) Data
This resource includes 2015 BRFSS data and related information. The BRFSS is a state-based surveillance system that uses survey phone calls to collect information on risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices, and health care access for adults 18 and older.
Report: Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015
This report presents the most recent estimates of expenditures by families on children annually across childhood and adolescence. The report indicates that a middle-income married-couple family will spend between $12,350 and $13,900 annually, or $233,610 from birth through age 17, on child-rearing expenses.
Upcoming Event: November is National Adoption Month
This observance aims to increase national awareness of the need for permanent families for children and youth in the foster care system. This year’s theme, “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family—Just Ask Us,” reflects a focus on the importance of identifying permanent families for the thousands of 15- to 18-year-olds in foster care who are currently less likely to be adopted or who may age out of the system without a stable home. A new tip sheet, Talking with Older Youth About Adoption (PDF, 2 pages) provides child welfare professionals with a framework for how to talk with older youth about permanency and includes suggestions for how to make these conversations more effective.
Children's Bureau
The Children's Bureau (CB) is one of two bureaus within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Children's Bureau seeks to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes, and communities. It has the primary responsibility for administering federal programs that support state child welfare services.
Report: Child Maltreatment 2015
This report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway provides state-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System on reports of abuse and neglect made to child protective services (CPS) agencies, the children involved, types of maltreatment, CPS responses, child and caregiver risk factors, services, and perpetrators.
Resource: Engaging Youth in Foster Care
This podcast shares the perspective of a youth formerly in foster care. It provides tips to caseworkers for engaging youth in developing their case plans and identifying supportive adults in their lives. This resource can help caseworkers as they work with youth who are in foster care or preparing to transition to adulthood.
Share with Youth: Being an Engaged and Involved Teen in Foster Care
This webpage provides information to teens in foster care about their permanency options, tools to help them transition to adulthood, and how to find support from other teens who have been in foster care.
Supporting Families Impacted by Incarceration — A Dialogue with Experts
This report, developed by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center, is the outcome of a meeting that convened national child welfare experts on families impacted by incarceration. It features key issues around this topic for practitioners and identifies needed resources and tools to support the workforce and families, along with a practical framework of intervention points from arrest to release.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (the Chafee program) provides funding to support youth/ young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. The program is funded through formula grants awarded to child welfare agencies in States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and participating Tribes. Chafee funds are used to assist youth/ young adults in a wide variety of areas designed to support a successful transition to adulthood. Activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support and assured connections to caring adults. Specific services and supports are determined by the child welfare agency, vary by State, locality and agency, and are often based on the individual needs of the young person. Many State or local agencies contract with private organizations to deliver services to young people.
Vital Signs: Demographic and Substance Use Trends Among Heroin Users — United States, 2002-2013
FDA and CDC analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and National Vital Statistics System during 2002-2013 to assess trends in heroin use among demographic and particular substance-using groups. Results show that heroin use has increased significantly across most demographic groups. Results also suggest an increase in heroin abuse or dependence parallels the increase in heroin-related overdose deaths, and reflects heroin use is occurring in the context of broader poly-substance use.
Report: Frequency of Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students
Researchers from CDC and FDA analyzed data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey to determine how frequently middle school and high school students in the United States used cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco products. Among current users in high school, frequent use was most prevalent among smokeless tobacco users, followed by cigarette smokers, e-cigarette users, and cigar smokers. Among current users in middle school, frequent use was greatest among smokeless tobacco users, followed by cigarette smokers, cigar smokers, and e-cigarette users. Current use of two or more types of tobacco products was common.
Report: Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students
Researchers from CDC and FDA analyzed data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey to determine the prevalence of current use of flavored e-cigarette, hookah tobacco, cigar, pipe tobacco, or smokeless tobacco products, and menthol cigarettes among middle and high school students. An estimated 70% of all current youth tobacco users had used at least one flavored tobacco product in the past 30 days. Among current users, 63.3% used a flavored e-cigarette, 60.6% had used flavored hookah tobacco, and 63.5% had used a flavored cigar.
Share with Youth: This Free Life
This campaign aims to prevent and reduce tobacco use among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young adults, ages 18-24, who are occasional smokers. As highlighted in a recent blog post describing the campaign, LGBT young adults in the United States are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults.
Resource: New Tobacco Product Regulations
These regulations extend FDA authority to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, hookah, and cigars. According to the new rules, retailers will no longer be able to sell e-cigarettes, cigars, or other covered tobacco products to anyone under age 18 and all tobacco sales to those 26 and under will require photo identification.
Report: Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — U.S., 2011–2016
This report analyzes data from the 2011–2016 National Youth Tobacco Surveys to determine recent patterns of current use of seven tobacco product types among U.S. middle and high school students. Decreases in cigarette and cigar use during 2011–2016 were offset by increases in hookah and e-cigarette use, resulting in no significant change in any tobacco use. In 2016, e-cigarettes remained the most commonly-used tobacco product among high school and middle school students.
How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet (2001) Chapter 5: How Young People Have Embraced Computers and the Internet
A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce: Children and young adults have embraced new information technologies in large numbers. More than any other age group, these younger age groups use computers and the Internet widely for many of their daily activities.
How Access to Technology Benefits Children
This site includes a report, created by the Department of Commerce, which contains 11 stories about people who are working hard to ensure technology will enhance the lives of children.
Fitness.gov
This website is the health, physical activity, fitness and sports information website of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. You can find out about the Council and its work, view publications, and link to the resources of other government agencies as well as to health and fitness organizations
Girls Health
Girlshealth.gov is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health, and is the "daughter" program of the National Women's Health Information Center (www.womenshealth.gov). Girlshealth.gov provides valuable information about ways girls can achieve a healthy lifestyle helping them to understand their body, mind, and spirit as they grow into adults.
Healthy People 2020
Healthy People provides science-based, ten year national objectives for promoting health and preventing disease.
The Surgeon General's Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity
This report describes the causes of obesity, the problem of obesity among children and youth, and suggestions for physical activity and healthier eating.
Cultivating Evaluation Capacity: A Guide for Programs Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence
Cultivating Evaluation Capacity: A Guide for Programs Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence (PDF, 58 pages) helps programs that serve survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence assess their evaluation capacity and identify areas of strength, as well as areas for improvement.
National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)
NVDRS collects data on violent deaths from a variety of sources, including death certificates, police reports, medical examiner and coroner reports, and crime laboratories.